Devizes Town Council is set to get a £167,000 mini road sweeper so that it can more effectively clean pavements and the gutters of the streets around the town.

The road sweeper would help council staff clear the kerbs of weeds which currently have to be removed by hand.

The council’s Community and Civic Resources Committee was told this week that the sweeping machine would “significantly increase the town’s cleanliness”.

Council officers reported: “The build-up of detritus at the edge of the roads is causing excessive weed growth during the summer and therefore to try and alleviate this, some areas have been cleaned by hand, which is extremely labour-intensive and it is not possible to cover all areas.

“The machines demonstrated are small enough to run along the pavement so can remove any build-up of moss and other materials and the surface can even be washed if a spraying system is fitted to the sweeper.”

Councillors were told that diesel-powered sweepers under consideration ranged from £63,375 to £98,500, but officers favoured an electrically-driven machine which costs £167,500.

But the town clerk, Simon Fisher, told councillors that it was the council’s usual practice to lease machinery.

A five-month lease of the electric machine would be £3,452 and some of the cost could be offset by the council hiring out its street-cleaning services to parishes in the area.

Councillors decided that a proposal on acquiring a road sweeper will be forwarded to the finance committee.